Charles Oliveira hopes that UFC matchmakers change their approach when it comes to booking Tony Ferguson fights if the veteran decides to enter the octagon in the future.
Oliveira, who handled Ferguson the second loss of his current eight-fight skid back in 2020, and has a good relationship with “El Cucuy”, said in an interview with MMA Fighting that it was hard to watch Ferguson suffer another setback this past August in Abu Dhabi, a first-round submission defeat to Michael Chiesa.
Ferguson, a former interim lightweight champion, appeared to indicate his retirement immediately after the bout, but changed the tone at the post-fight press conference, saying “no, I still wanna fight.”
“He deserves all the respect in the world just to be fighting still, he deserves a standing ovation for everything he’s done in the UFC,” Oliveira said. “But I think the UFC should also give him some help and put him against someone [around his age] so they can put on a show and we applaud them.”
Ferguson was stopped in five of those eight losses, also finished by Justin Gaethje, Michael Chandler, Nate Diaz, Bobby Green, with additional decision defeats to “do Bronx”, Beneil Dariush and Paddy Pimblett.
The last time Ferguson fought someone who was older than him was June of 2019, when he scored a win over Donald Cerrone. For Oliveira, who earned a shot at the UFC belt with his victory over Ferguson, the UFC should book “El Cucuy” against veterans on the tail end of their career instead of up and comers like Pimblett.
“The guy doesn’t want to retire, he’s there, so why not get someone with the same vibe to put on a big fight? That would be great,” Oliveira said. “But to put these young kids, kids coming in hungry for attention over a big name like him, that’s a bit complicated. It sucks. The guy has a certain age, and you put him against young kids to fight him? That hurts him a little bit.”
He just got finished by Chiesa, who’s pretty old and mid. BJ would probably have to come back for Tony to have a beatable opponent at this point. I think even Clay Guida or Joe Lauzon would smash him now.
Who’s on the roster that’s his age and active? Only ones i can think of are clay and jim miller. Jim would either decapitate him or choke him out of he felt merciful.
UFC should just do him like Chandler and tell him he’s fighting Conor next.
Then just keep stretching it out until he dies of natural causes.
Tony Ferguson confirms he’s not retired, announces plans for early 2025 UFC return: “F*ck no I’m not retiring!”
“I left half a f—king glove in there, and I got it back, so that just tells me I got both pairs of gloves,” Ferguson explained. “We’re going to probably take the rest of this season, figure some things out, and we’re coming back hard either January or February … F—k no I’m not retiring, I’m too old to retire.
“40 years old, I’m halfway to 80. I’ve been competing since I was five years old in multiple sports. It’s not like I don’t know anything else. I do. I’m still able to compete. When somebody can run a sprint faster than me, maybe I’ll start to consider it.”
Given his litany of knee injuries, I have to assume there’s a handful on the UFC roster who could in fact out-sprint Ferguson. Regardless, Ferguson at least has a plan to changing his fighting fortunes, and it doesn’t involve David Goggins this time. Instead, “El Cucuy” is planning to track down a real coach and training camp, possibly Firas Zahabi at Tristar in Montreal.
“What I really need is to find that coaching and that discipline around other people. Being uncomfortable in practice so that way you’re not miserable in the fight. I approached a couple different coaches. Firas Zahabi is one of the coaches I always admired, because he was GSP’s coach, and GSP was always my target.”
Ferguson spending time at a high-level camp is far from a bad idea, but it’s likely a few years too late. If it isn’t, Ferguson should probably be getting training in with top partners now while he doesn’t have a fight booked, because his recent performances leave a lot to be desired.
I’d like to see Ferg move up a weight class. I could see him breaking off a three fight win streak and then getting a shot at the title.
Too be fair, that was at WW. Chiesa has excellent grappling, less miles, and is pretty big for WW.
True but a WW with poor striking and sub defense was about the only thing left to try. He is visibly unable to deal with the speed at LW anymore.
nick diaz needs a fight…